U.S.O. Club Bombing

On April 14, 1988, the U.S.O. Club in Naples, Italy, was rocked by a car bomb that killed five people and injured more than a dozen, including several Americans. Further investigations revealed that the attack was in retaliation for the April 1986 bombings of Tripoli and Benghazi, military sites in Libya.

The U.S.O. Club in Naples was located on a busy, narrow street, just a block from the docks where two American warships were moored. When the car bomb exploded, at about 8 P.M., most American officers were in the entertainment rooms in the basement of club, and escaped injury. Four Italians and one U.S. servicewoman walking in the crowded street were killed instantly. At least 15 others suffered serious injuries from the flying debris and pieces of the car in which the bomb had been hidden.

Initially, Middle Eastern groups with ...